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Buzz Aldrin knocks out a reporter

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RayB:
This whole "what did it give us" type of cynicism is what has caused many great American companies to fall like cards. The MBAs move in, criticise the "waste" of "pointless research" and cut them off.

Science is all about exploration and knowledge. Some questions don't get answered. Some beget more questions. Sometimes its decades of "useless knowledge" that finally springs forth the next great advances, like transistors, photography, television...  Some enable us to land a hunk of metal on another planet and beam back photos!

How's this for what it brought us:

A humbling view of our own little ball of dirt and water floating in space.
Sights that only a handful of people among our 6 billion will ever get to see.
PRIDE in the ingenuity that humans are capable of when they come together as a team.

All of these are priceless despite the "real world" costs attached to them.

mountain:
Don't forget



DaOld Man:
There should be an American flag on that moon buggy.....
since WE GOT THERE FIRST!!!!!
 :cheers:

patrickl:

--- Quote from: RayB on July 18, 2008, 06:55:25 pm ---This whole "what did it give us" type of cynicism is what has caused many great American companies to fall like cards. The MBAs move in, criticise the "waste" of "pointless research" and cut them off.

--- End quote ---
The Space (Moon) race was a propaganda effort. Nothing more nothing less.


--- Quote from: wiki/Moon_landing ---Everything we do ought to really be tied in to getting on to the moon ahead of the Russians [...] otherwise we shouldn't be spending that kind of money, because I'm not interested in space [...] The only justification for [the cost] is because we hope to beat [the USSR] to demonstrate that instead of being behind by a couple of years, by God, we passed them.
--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: wiki/Moon_landing ---Whatever he said in private, Kennedy needed a different message to gain public support to uphold what he was saying and his views. Later in 1963, Kennedy asked Vice President Johnson to investigate the possible technological and scientific benefits of a Moon mission. Johnson concluded that the benefits were limited, but, with the help of scientists at NASA, he put together a powerful case, citing possible medical breakthroughs and interesting pictures of Earth from space.
--- End quote ---

Indeed as a propaganda thing, it really succeeded. It knocked down the USSR a notch and to this day it's the coolest thing any country has done. Even if it's useless, but then why do we watch sports?

Even so, spending that much money and doing a lot of research, there must have been some research results that spilled over in normal life. Maybe it's been too long ago for this to still be in use or something? I remember that when I was a kid, the first one grip faucet was being claimed to have been the result of space age research. That was way after the lunar landings though.

ark_ader:
What did we get out of the space missions and going to the moon?

Kennedy said we are going to the moon, and America answered the call and we did it.  Not Russia, not China or Europe.

Shows that we have the power to do anything, thus the reason why Americans are the leaders of the world, the rest of the globe follows.

We go into space because we can.

You cannot get any better than that.  Don't like that?  Get over it!  :cheers:

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